Using Twitter could help you find your next job

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With an unemployment rate of 10.2 percent, many discouraged Americans have spent the past year in and out of work, wondering how to find their next job. A potential answer, and one with an astonishing rate of efficacy, can be found by taking a look at Twitter.

Though the microblogging juggernaut always seems to be finding itself on the receiving end of derisive commentary — “I don’t need to know that someone is eating a donut” — Twitter has ably demonstrated its true utility through the world of networking professionals. As more companies and recruiters begin to see the benefits of a concise, widespread job listing, more Twitter members are turning to apps designed to help them find their next job. In the past month alone, 340,000 jobs have been listed on the site, and that number is sure to rise.

In creating smart partnerships with professional networking sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and its clients have an even wider database than before. Newer Twitter clients like JobDeck use this partnership to their advantage, scanning status updates from LinkedIn and including them in their job search results.

These scans also include employment-related updates, which are then broken down by keywords based upon one’s search criteria. For example, typing “intern” into TwitJobSearch gives 3,661 results, all found in less than one second. To combat the possibility of getting lost in the deluge, advertisers like KFC and Adidas pay to have their job listings appear toward the top. And who said Twitter couldn’t turn a profit?

Beyond new applications, members have the opportunity to mine human resources and public relations firms already on Twitter, or to modify their name, potentially increasing exposure through searches by possible employers. And while the latter has its drawbacks — just because you’ve listed yourself as a “writer” does not mean the offers will come pouring in — the fact that Twitter is being used in such a capacity demonstrates precisely why we will be inundated with Tweet-speak for some time.